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One dead, two wounded in Phoenix office shooting

Police are searching for a 70-year-old man suspected in a Phoenix office shooting, saying he is armed and dangerous.

This frame grab provided by abc15.com shows the scene at a Phoenix office complex where police say someone shot at least three people on Jan. 30. (AP)

By Jacques BilleaudThe Associated Press

Wed., Jan. 30, 2013

PHOENIX—Police are searching for a 70-year-old man suspected in a Phoenix office shooting that left one dead and two wounded, saying that he is “armed and dangerous.”

Police identified the suspect as Arthur D. Harmon. They identified a man who died hours after the Wednesday morning shooting as 48-year-old Steve Singer. He’s the CEO of Fusion Contract Centers Inc.

Police say a 43-year-old man was listed in critical condition along with a 32-year-old woman.

Police didn’t release the names of the wounded, but a Phoenix law firm, Osborn Maledon, said one of its lawyers, Mark Hummels, was among the wounded.

The firm said he “was representing a client in a mediation” when he was shot.

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As police searched for the shooter, SWAT teams and two armoured vehicles surrounded his house about 11 kilometres from the shooting scene. Police served a search warrant to enter the home.

For a time, officers, believing the shooter was inside, used a megaphone to ask him to surrender.

The gunfire at the office complex prompted terrified workers to lock the doors to their offices and hide far from the windows. SWAT officers searched the building.

“Everyone was just scared, honestly, just scared,” said Navika Sood, assistant director of nursing at First at Home Health Services who, along with her co-workers, locked the entrances to their office.

Sood said police evacuated the office about 30 minutes after she first heard the popping noises.

Around 10:30 a.m., the gunman arrived at the office building and got into a dispute with someone, a conflict that escalated to the point where he drew a gun and shot three people, Thompson said.

Vannessa Brogan, who works in sales support at an insurance business in the three-storey complex, said she heard a loud bang that she thought at first was from somebody working in or near the building.

She said others at the business thought they heard multiple loud noises. She said people locked themselves in offices until authorities evacuated the complex that houses insurance, medical and law offices.

Becky Neher, who works for a title company in the building, said the two gunshots she heard sounded like two pieces of metal banging against each other.

Watching from her second-story office, she saw people leaving the building.

“Someone yelled, ‘We have a shooter,’ ” she said. She saw two victims lying on the ground outside the back side of the building. She said health-care workers who have offices in the complex came out to help.

Don Jaksa, a software consultant who works in the building, said he was listening to the radio when he suddenly heard “two pops.” He said he didn’t think they were gunshots.

“My co-worker goes to the range all the time,” he said. “He identified it as gunfire.”

His co-worker then locked the door. After five minutes, they left and ran into police and someone carrying a stretcher. The police escorted them back to their office and told them to lock the door again.

They were eventually evacuated, and as he sat on a rock outside the complex, his wife called to make sure he was OK after seeing the shooting on the news.

Workers were later allowed to leave the building. Two hugged each other when they got outside.

“You don’t expect this when you come to work,” worker Lindsa Rincon said.

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